Search code examples
c#.net-coremsbuildproject-template.csproj.in

Nuget PackageReference found in one solution, but not in my own solution

Previous title:

The "GenerateFileFromTemplate" task was not found

.NET project template - GeneratedContent

.csproj.in file transformations

The troubled package is Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating.

I've created a git-repository containing multiple .NET project templates. When opened in Visual Studio, VS had a horrible performance when adding more files to the template project. This turned out to be caused by my template's project files having .csproj extension. Therefor I've changed the extensions of all my template csproj files to csproj.in.

Because of this, I need to add a msbuild task that transforms this .csproj.in to .csproj. There are several examples out on the internet:

In the above samples, there is no nuget.config in the project.

Your root csproj file contains a <GeneratedContentProperties> and <GeneratedContent> section:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <GeneratedContentProperties>
      DefaultNetCoreTargetFramework=$(DefaultNetCoreTargetFramework);
    </GeneratedContentProperties>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <GeneratedContent Include="Angular-CSharp.csproj.in" OutputPath="content/Angular-CSharp/Company.WebApplication1.csproj" />
    <GeneratedContent Include="React-CSharp.csproj.in" OutputPath="content/React-CSharp/Company.WebApplication1.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

The .csproj.in files reference the GeneratedContentProperties:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>${DefaultNetCoreTargetFramework}</TargetFramework>
        ...
    </PropertyGroup>
    ...
</Project>

I've tried applying the same files to my project in this commit, but I'm still getting the following error when building the project:

dotnet build --configuration Release
MSBuild version 17.3.0+92e077650 for .NET
  Determining projects to restore...
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.400\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.DefaultItems.Shared.targets(152,5): warning NETSDK1023: A PackageReference for 'Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating' was included in your project. This package is implicitly referenced by the .NET SDK and you do not typically need to reference it from your project. For more information, see https://aka.ms/sdkimplicitrefs [C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.
IdentityServer.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates.csproj]
...
  All projects are up-to-date for restore.
...
C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\eng\GenerateContent.targets(27,3): error MSB4036: The "GenerateFileFromTemplate" task was not found. Check the following:
    1.) The name of the task in the project file is the same as the name of the task class.
    2.) The task class is "public" and implements the Microsoft.Build.Framework.ITask interface.
    3.) The task is correctly declared with <UsingTask> in the project file, or in the *.tasks files located in the "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.400" directory
    [C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates.csproj]

Build FAILED.

It seems that dotnet cannot find the GenerateFileFromTemplate Task...

I also see that the spa-templates project is using the Arcade SDK, but I don't think I'd actually need that...

How can I fix this? What am I still missing here?

EDIT

When I open both projects in Visual Studio, this is what I see:

Nuget packages for my template project: Nuget packages for my template project

C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates> dotnet restore
  Determining projects to restore...C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates.csproj : warning NU1604: Project dependency Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating does not contain an inclusive lower bound. 
  Include a lower bound in the dependency version to ensure consistent restore results.
C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates.csproj : error NU1101: Unable to find package Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating. No packages exist with this id in source(s): C:\Program Files\dotnet\library-packs, Local, Microsoft Visual Studio Offline Packages, nuget.org
  Failed to restore C:\repos\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates\MintPlayer.AspNetCore.IdentityServer.Templates.csproj (in 516 ms).

Nuget packages for spa-templates: Nuget packages for the spa-templates project

C:\repos\spa-templates\src> dotnet restore
  Determining projects to restore...
C:\repos\spa-templates\src\Microsoft.DotNet.Web.Spa.ProjectTemplates.csproj : warning NU1603: Microsoft.DotNet.Web.Spa.ProjectTemplates.7.0 depends on Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating (>= 6.0.0-beta.21373.11) but Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating 6.0.0-beta.21373.11 was not found. An approximate best match of Microsoft.DotNet.Build.Tasks.Templating 6.0.0-beta.22212.5 was resolved.
  All projects are up-to-date for restore.

So it seems that dotnet restore is unable to restore this package. However, the nuget sources are the same for both projects:

IdentityServer.Templates>dotnet nuget list source
Registered Sources:
  1.  nuget.org [Enabled]
      https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
  2.  Local [Enabled]
      C:\packages
  3.  Microsoft Visual Studio Offline Packages [Enabled]
      C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\NuGetPackages\



C:\repos\spa-templates>dotnet nuget list source
Registered Sources:
  1.  nuget.org [Enabled]
      https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
  2.  Local [Enabled]
      C:\packages
  3.  Microsoft Visual Studio Offline Packages [Enabled]
      C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\NuGetPackages\

EDIT 2

Hmm, it seems that GenerateFileFromTemplate is part of the Arcade SDK... (Howto)

Solution

  • How to install Microsoft.DotNet.Arcade.Sdk into the dotnet sdk folder?

    It seems that the package is only available through the following NuGet feed:

    https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet-eng/nuget/v3/index.json

    So I added a nuget.config in the root of the project/repository:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <add key="dotnet-eng" value="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet-eng/nuget/v3/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
</configuration>

    And since there's only preview versions of the package, you need for example the following version (eng/Versions.props):

    <Project>
  ...
  <PropertyGroup Label="Package versions">
    <MicrosoftDotNetBuildTasksTemplatingVersion>6.0.0-beta.21373.11</MicrosoftDotNetBuildTasksTemplatingVersion>
    ...
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>